Dota 2
Dota 2 is a multiplayer battle arena video game developed and the stand-alone sequel to the Defense Of The Ancients mod for Warcraft III and its expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Formally announced on October
13, 2010, via Game Informer, the game is
currently available for early test access purchase, with a free to play when released. Dota 2 will be released via download
by Valve's content delivery platform Steam, on which the game has been developed to run exclusively for both release
and update delivery.
Dota 2 consists of session-based online multiplayer activity,
with the primary objective of each match being for teams to destroy their
opposing team's fortified stronghold. Each player controls a player character called a "hero", who is given the responsibility of
participating in team combat, which generally takes place along a series of
lanes that connect their opposing bases, lined with defensive towers. The
gameplay elements are largely incorporated from Defense of the Ancients, with the game's lead designer, Ice Frog, being the longest-serving and
current developer of the Warcraft III
mod.
Gameplay
Dota 2 combines the real-time strategy element of traditional topdown, while also incorporating itemization functions of a role-playing video game. Players are pitted against each
other as two distinct factions called the Radiant and the Dire. The Radiant is
a faction based at the southwest corner of the map, while the Dire is a faction
based at the northeast corner. Players assume the role of one of ninety-eight
"heroes" – strategically powerful units
with special abilities, who, through combat experience, may progress to a
maximum level of twenty-five. The heroes' methods of combat are heavily
influenced by their primary property, which can be physical strength, agility,
or intelligence. The basic
setup of Dota 2 places two
strongholds containing critical structures called "Ancients" at
opposing ends of a geographically balanced map. These bases are connected by
three main paths (referred to as "lanes"), which are guarded by
defensive towers and groups of weaker units commonly referred to as
"creeps" periodically spawned, which traverse their lanes, attacking
enemy units and structures upon sight. Players are split into two teams, each
consisting of up to five players, to compete as the primary defenders for each
Ancient.
The overall objective of each
match is to battle through the opposing force's defenses, in order to arrive at
and destroy the opponents' Ancient. Because Dota 2 is highly team-oriented, players must coordinate with
their teams in order to achieve victory. The towers and stronghold defenses are
invulnerable to attacks so long as the towers nearest to the enemy side still
stand.
The currency of the game is gold,
which is granted periodically, but typically accumulates at a more practical
level by killing enemy units, which grants a distributed amount of gold to the
killer's team, with the greater portion being retained by the killer
themselves. A common technique utilized to prevent the opposing faction from
accumulating gold from a kill is "denying", which constitutes killing
an allied unit or destroying an allied structure and can be employed when said
unit or structure is close to death or destruction. Players also gain
experience, which accumulates to gain higher levels. The greatest portion of
gold and experience originates from destroying higher priority forces, such as
enemy heroes and towers.
Featured along the Dire side of
the river is a "boss" called "Roshan". Typically, multiple team members are required
for killing Roshan, who drops powerful items. Following his death, Roshan
respawns after the completion of a cooldown timer.
Concept
According to Valve's founder and managing director, Gabe Newell, the
company's investment in Dota
was sparked from the collective interest of several veteran employees,
including Team Fortress designer Robin Walker,
programmer Adrian Finol and project manager Erik Johnson, all of whom had
attempted to partake in team play at a competitive level. As their interest in
the game intensified, they began corresponding with DotA's developer, IceFrog, over a series of emails, inquiring
what long-term plans he had for the mod.The emails eventually culminated
in an invitation from Erik Johnson, offering IceFrog a tour of the company's
facilities and as a result, hired him to develop a sequel.The first
public notification regarding the development of Dota 2 was a blog post made by IceFrog on October
5, 2009, stating that he would be leading a team at Valve. No official word was given until
its official announcement on October 13, 2010, when the website of magazine Game Informer revealed specific details about
the game and its development,creating
traffic on the website to the extent of crashing their servers. Erik
Johnson addressed the confusion over the written form of the brand name, citing
it as "Dota", rather
than "DotA", due to
its increasing context as a concept, rather than an acronym for "Defense of the Ancients"
Shortly following a question and answer session by IceFrog on PlayDotA.com, the Defense
of the Ancients official website, elaborating upon his recruitment by
Valve, a trademark claim was filed by Valve on August 6, 2010. Steve feak, the
original developer of the DotA
Allstars variant and Steve Mescon, the creator of dota-allstars.com,
both employees of Riot Games, expressed
their concern that Valve did not maintain the right to a trademark for the DotA name, due to their views that it
was a community asset. On August 9, 2010, Mescon filed an opposing trademark
for "DOTA" on behalf of DotA-Allstars, LLC, (a subsidiary of Riot
Games), in order to "protect the work that dozens of authors have done to
create the game".Rob Pardo, the executive vice president of Blizzard entertainment, the developer of Warcraft III, expressed a similar concern,
explaining that the DotA name
was an asset of the Warcraft III
community. Blizzard acquired DotA-Allstars, LLC from Riot Games in 2011, to
enforce their claim as not only the creators of the World Editor, but to have the rights from the company that made
a claim to the mod previously. During the
game's unveiling at Gamescom 2011, Gabe
Newell explained Valve's perspective on acquiring the trademark, which was that
IceFrog desired to develop a direct sequel to DotA and that players would likely recognize it as such. Blizzard filed an opposition
against Valve in November 2011, citing the Warcraft III World Editor and their ownership of DotA-Allstars,
LLC as a proper claim to the franchise. On May 11,
2012, Blizzard and Valve announced that the dispute had been settled, with
Valve retaining the commercial franchising rights to the term "Dota",
while Blizzard would change the name of their map from Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard all allstars
Design
As the sequel to Defense of the Ancients, the
development cycle of Dota 2 has
been concentrated primarily upon fully transferring the aspects of its
predecessor to the Source Engine, as well as building upon the core gameplay. Dota 2 recreates the factions of the Sentinel and the Scourage from Defense
of the Ancients as the Radiant and the Dire respectively, with
cornerstone features of the characters' alignment reserved, while ultimately
re-establishing the familiar qualities in a new form. Warcraft III composer Jason Hayes was contracted by Valve to
collaborate with Tim Larkin for
developing Dota 2's musical
score. Character
names, abilities, items, map design and other fine details remain virtually
unchanged, but the integration of these features to the Source engine allows
for continued, scaled development to bypass limitations from the Warcraft III Editor. Further
support for the competitive experience is developed through the use of Dota 2 account matchmaking, which
scales a player's automated placement in accordance to their estimated skill
level. Non-computed and unranked practice matches are made available through
the use of either human players, AI bots or solo games. In the debut
Q&A, IceFrog stated that Dota 2
will serve as the long-term continuation of the mod, building upon the original gameplay without making too many significant
core changes that may alter the overall experience. According
to Valve, the company contracted major contributors for DotA's popularity to assist in developing Dota 2, including the mod's original
creator known as "Eul", as well as loading screen artist Kendrick Lim
of IFS. IceFrog has stated that in order
to further emphasize Dota 2's
premise as a continuation of DotA,
contributions would remain consistent from sources outside the main development
team.
To accommodate Dota 2, Valve has worked to upgrade
the Source engine to include new features, such as high-end cloth modeling, improved global lighting, as well as improvements to Steamworks, which includes a wider expansion of utilities, such as player guides and
the coaching system. Dota 2 utilizes Valve's Steam
software in order to provide social and community functionality for the game.
Steam accounts save personal files and settings on the online accounts using
the Steam Cloud. Dota 2 also
features multiple options of live spectating, in tradition of competitive Valve
titles. The game host has the option to fill open slots with AI bots. Another
option allows the host to determine if AI bots or other human players will be
used to fill the vacated slot of a disconnected player. Valve is introducing a
coaching system to allow for more experienced players to tutor newer players.
The game will also feature tutorial sessions for further assisting players to
mount the steep learning curve before competitive play. In addition
to the online platform established by Steam, Dota 2 will support (LAN) multiplayer connectivity.
To coincide with Dota 2's public debut at Gamescom
2011, Valve opened the sign-up for invites for the beta, with invites being sent out following the conclusion
of Gamescom. During the
debut, Gabe Newell revealed that Dota
2 would likely ship in 2012, despite original plans for a full release
in late 2011. On
September 23, 2011, Valve scrapped its previous development and release plans
for Dota 2, which would have
kept the game in its beta phase for over a year, in order to accommodate the
full transfer of creative materials developed for the original DotA. The new plan described by
IceFrog looked to release the Dota 2
beta at the nearest possible date and to implement the remaining heroes
afterwards. Simultaneously, Valve announced that the non disclosure agreement for the beta was being lifted,
allowing testers to discuss the game and their experiences publicly.
Beginning with the second edition
of The Defense tournament hosted by joinDOTA in June 2012, Valve implemented
the tournament support feature. Tournaments may be available for spectating
in-game via the purchase of a tournament pass in the Dota Store, which provides
an alternative to viewing live streams online. This feature supports previous
and live matches from tournaments. In addition, teams may be formally
identified by the game's software, which automatically recognizes games with
players as being team
matches and catalogs them as such.
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